Access control is a common security requirement for entering private or public buildings, areas, parking, etc.
When the access control is automated, people usually receive a personal physical badge containing, a RFID or a NFC/MIFARE circuit enabling the access control system to authenticate the request and validate it against access policy rules. This is represented in the FIG. 1a. The procedure consists in approaching the badge 1 close to a badge reader 3. The badge reader 3 retrieves the assigned ID from the tag and transmits it to a back-end access control server 4. The access control server 4 checks the policy linked to the access controlled by the badge reader 3 and the access rights associated with the badge 1 and its owner. The access control server 4 allows the access by unlocking the door 5, opening the gate 5, etc. associated with the badge reader 3. This may be achieved by the badge reader 3 controlling an actuator 6 to open the door or gate 5.
Another implementation consists in integrating the physical badge into a NFC-enabled (i.e. Near-Field-Communication enabled) phone 2. In such case, the mobile phone 2 acts as a physical badge as it holds fully an integrated circuit similar to the ones designed for the regular badge.
The state-of-art requires either the delivery of physical access badge or the ownership of a NFC-enabled device. These conditions imply an operational overhead when the access control is required only temporarily, for short-term visitors, or for a large population. Indeed the delivering authority has to welcome badge requesters, validate their request, issue the badge and handle post-delivery issues (e.g. badge loss, etc). Hence there is a need of improving the state-of-the art for providing virtual badge enabling access control without requiring the physical delivery of a badge, electronic tag or the possession of a NFC-enabled device.
The emergence of Low Throughput Networks (LTN), their wide coverage and the cheap implementation requirements offer new possibilities. LTN networks are defined in ETSI standards GS LTN 001 entitled “Low Throughput Networks (LTN); Use Cases for Low Throughput Networks”, GS LTN 002 entitled “Low Throughput Networks (LTN); Functional Architecture”, and GS LTN 003 entitled “Low Throughput Networks (LTN); Protocols and Interfaces”. An example of an LTN network is LoRa. LoRa is a long-range, low-power, low-bitrate, wireless telecommunications system, promoted as a suitable infrastructure solution for the Internet of Things.